Impromptu Portraits

I have a few things to mention about this post, and I’m not sure where to start… How about ‘brain-dump’ style?

It’s been an excellent few weeks. Starting with the return from a Spokane conference, I’ve been committed to some personal and business goals that have stretched me beyond my normal comfort zone. Nothing that would make me go home crying at the end of a day, but enough to give me butterflies and to live on the proverbial edge. It means that as we’s recently ramped up into the start of the UAS semester, I’ve been getting up earlier and earlier so that I give my best and least-distracted time of the day towards my goals. To encourage me to do that, I’ve given myself permission to get up before the crack of dawn to go hang with the bears near the glacier at first light.

How does that play into this post? Good question. I think in two ways… First, I have my camera with me nearly all the time now; it’s never farther away than ‘in the car’. And second, the portraits below are a little bit different for me – it’s a stretch for what I’m accustomed to.

I don’t normally insert myself into the photos that I am capturing. If you see me at weddings or events, most of the time I am across the room, using a long lens to capture moments shared by others. In portrait sessions, I would rather have some distance, and let the person/couple be relaxed and authentic rather than to be actively involved in adjusting every bit of minutia. I don’t particularly enjoy posed shots – I want natural expressions of people living their life!

So… Back to these photos. This is me walking around a busy crowd and stepping within arms reach of someone and holding up my (giant) camera & lens directly to their face. It’s slightly scary for me, as strange as that sounds. I found it was fun to see how some folks reacted. Too many ladies were self critical, and a few guys were over-the-top. It’s interesting to see the interplay of personality and self-image.

Most of these folks are people I’ve known over the years at campus and other places, so it wasn’t too off-beat to have me arrive with a camera, but it was still a stretch. We’ll see what the next outing holds!